Weston Otmoor Oxfordshire Eco-Town

Here is the Wiki entry to get the ball rolling.............

Weston Otmoor is a proposed eco-town in Oxfordshire planned for a site 7 miles north of Oxford next to Junction 9 of the M40 Motorway.

The eco-town concept and individual proposals are subject to a consultation by the Department of Communities and Local Government ending 30 June 2008.

Weston Otmoor is one of 15 bids shortlisted by the Department of Communities and Local Government on 3 April 2008.

Principal features

Located 7 miles north of Oxford next to Junction 9 of the M40 motorway.
The site covers 828 hectares, 2,046 acres. 84% of this is working farmland. The other 16% is an entirely grass airfield. 250ha is within the Oxford greenbelt.
15,000 dwellings (10,000 initially)
35,000 people
12,000 jobs
An inhabited bridge over the A34 dual carriageway, taking inspiration from Birmingham and Florence, will be the signature architectural feature.
The prospective developer is Partidge Holdings Ltd.

Detailed plans for the half of the site SE of the A34 await further ecological study. This area includes the Woodsides Meadow Nature Reserve (Wendlebury Meads) and ancient woodland.

Elimination of the car

The exemplary eco-town feature will be the transport system.
There will be limited private car access to the body of the development.
Travel within the town will be by free tram. Homes will never be more than 200m from a stop.
Travel to Oxford and Bicester will be free by train from a new station and improved railway line. The Oxford-Bedford line will be reopened as far as Milton Keynes.
There will be a park and ride service from J9 of the M40

Small communities

Small schools will be located throughout the town and will be a focus of the urban architecture.
Many small shops so that they are never far from any home.
A "proper" high street.

Layout

There will be extensive green spaces ("green infrastructure") and allotment gardens for all.
There will be a large commercial area for offices and industry.

Energy and environment

There will be a combined heat and power (CHP) station in the NW corner of the site.
Waste disposal innovation.
Water management innovation..

Housing

Housing will be located in a compact urban core of 220 ha.
The distribution of dwelling types will be significantly skewed towards affordable housing.

Summary of published criticism

Unsustainable, unrealistic

Figures for expected car ownership and traffic flows are unavailable from the developers. This renders an objective assessment of whether the proposal meets eco-town exemplary transport criteria impossible and the ongoing government consultation meaningless.

Normally 15,000 dwellings would be expected to generate 10,000 car journeys at peak hours. A 100% modal shift to rail is completely unrealistic. It is therefore highly likely the proposal will break the eco-town rules for sustainability and for exemplary design given the existing levels of road congestion at the site.

Inappropriate, unnecessary

Oxfordshire County Council policy is to concentrate development around the county towns, not on working farmland.

Cherwell District Council has already planned for 12,000 new houses over the next two decades and these are to be sited to develop and support existing towns.

The developers suggest that a completely new town must be built because attempts to improve transport and housing in Oxford have failed, not because they are an impossibility.

Other more appropriate sites exist, such as the entirely brownfield RAF Upper Heyford.

Unemployment in both Cherwell District and Oxfordshire is half the national average. New jobs are not needed and would have to be taken from elsewhere.

Impact on existing towns

Bicester suffers from lack of infrastructure, limited social and community facilities, and a town centre that is in dire need of development. Resource competition would have a negative impact, as it also would on nearby Kidlington.

Water stress

The site is on a flood plain and in an area of high "water stress" or shortage. The site drains into the RiverCherwell frequently in flood in winter.

Ecological impact

By using an entirely greenfield site, the eco-town rule requiring a "net benefit in landscape and bio-diversity" is immediately broken. The proposal is by definition not an eco-town.

25% of the site is within the Oxford greenbelt and much of Weston on the Green is within a conservation area.

Development would destroy the Woodsides Meadow Nature Reserve, a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and ancient woodland. The site is almost entirely working farmland with hedgerows and crops that sustain diverse wildlife.

The dramatic rise in food prices requires a large increase in agricultural output. " Farmland will be just too important for greenfield development".

The development includes a power station for Combined Heat and Power. A 300 megawatt gas fired cogeneration plant would emit up to 1,800 tonnes of carbon dioxide greenhouse gas per day. If run on wood chips, it would consume 5,000 tonnes daily. Prevailing winds will carry any particulate fallout and pollutants from the proposed power station (NW corner of site) over Bicester. Unless the power station runs on biomass, the town will violate the eco-town zero carbon rule.

The proposed eco-town will not have "higher order" facilities (those of a larger town such as Oxford) and would thus increase car use.

Sociological aspects

If eco-towns are not created where the jobs and services are, we will create ghettos

"It may be better to look at the possibility of creating eco-extensions to existing communities, rather than completely new towns."

The distinguished designer and broadcaster, Kevin McCloud , is building two eco-suburbs of 200 homes each in Swindon. He regards these developments as experimental and aims "not to create ring-fenced ghettos but to focus on the social and physical relationships between Hab projects and the wider community". Eco-town design is in its infancy and Weston Otmoor is far too big to used as an experiment.

The eco-town will not have the retail or leisure facilities of a large town such as Oxford. One of the few benefits for low income families of living in a large city is that many facilities, often free of charge or discounted, are on their doorstep or a short bus ride away. This will not be the case for the eco-town in the middle of the countryside. The bias towards low income households, the elimination of cars and the lack of facilities appears designed to increase the deprivation of already disadvantaged families and to contain them in a rural ghetto.